


On The Edge

by Miss_Romance_Lover



Category: Emmerdale, robron
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 05:31:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7421815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Romance_Lover/pseuds/Miss_Romance_Lover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaron rushes to the rescue when he gets a phone call, and it later prompts a big life decision for him and Robert.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On The Edge

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this is really, except that it was inspired by a playful suggestion made by Inside Soap that Pierce might end up driving Rhona and Leo off a cliff in the near future...and so this happened but with a Robron theme.

Aaron was walking back to work with Robert after a long lunch at the pub when his mobile rang, interrupting their easy chatter.

“Oh, it’s Rhona,” he said in surprise as he answered. “Hello?”

There was no reply, but he could hear the sound of an engine running and voices in the background. His first thought was that she must have accidentally pocket-dialled him while driving; his name would likely be first in her contacts list after all, with it beginning with an ‘A’.

But then he heard something that worried him. He heard Leo, and the little boy sounded like he was more than a little distressed. As Aaron continued straining to hear more, Robert asked what was wrong and he shushed him, waving one hand up to tell him to wait. Rhona’s voice became clearer then, and he could hear what she was saying:

“Where are we going, Pierce?” she was asking. There was no answer, and her voice grew louder. “The quarry? Is that where you’re taking us?”

Aaron held his breath waiting for something else to be said. Rhona seemed to be keeping her voice light but she certainly didn’t sound happy to him. It was when he finally heard Pierce speak that he sprang into action.

“We can all be together once we get there.”

“Shit!” Aaron said, taking off running as he took in what the man was implying, the phone still clamped to his ear. 

Robert followed him, looking alarmed. “Aaron? What’s…”

Aaron didn’t hear the rest of his boyfriend’s sentence because Rhona was talking again on the end of the phone, replying to Pierce in a shaky voice. “But we’re together now!”

She and Leo were in danger, and it looked like she had phoned him for help, and to give as many clues as possible. He now realised that was why she had been directing the conversation as she was.

“We need to get to the quarry,” he told Robert as they ran. “I can’t hang up, need to know what’s happening. Phone Marlon,” he instructed, before remembering something and groaning. “No, don’t! He’s away with Carly and April. That must be why Rhona rang me instead…”

They were silent as they matched each other step for step in their frantic sprint, with Aaron growing more and more anxious as he listened into his phone. Nothing else had been said, but he could still hear an increasingly unsettled Leo, and Rhona attempting to soothe him even amongst her own panic.

“I’ll call Vanessa,” Robert said as they neared their destination. Aaron could only nod, his mind focused on nothing else except making damn sure he got to his godson and his mother in time.

Pierce’s voice broke into his thoughts on the end of the phone. “We’re here,” he was announcing calmly. “It’ll be over soon.”

Robert was hanging up his own phone when they reached the quarry, a mere minute after Aaron had heard Pierce’s latest statement. They spotted the car nearing the edge, and Aaron didn’t stop to think. He shot towards it, trying desperately to stop this apparent madman from taking two innocent people with him.

He reached Rhona’s side of the car and pulled frantically at the door, which was predictably locked. She was looking out at him, her face pale and her eyes filled with fear. Aaron looked past her at Pierce, who was facing straight ahead, both hands gripping the steering wheel. His face was dark and determined. 

Aaron was not going to let this happen. He couldn’t let it happen.

In the back, Leo was crying his little heart out. Rhona turned around to tend to him.

Walking around to stand in front of the car, Aaron put both hands on the bonnet and stared the driver down. 

“Be careful!” Robert called out to him, before it occurred to him that Aaron was never going to listen at this point. So he went to join him instead. He headed straight for Pierce’s window and knocked on it until the man turned his head. But then he simply turned it back again and revved the engine. 

“Well that helped,” Aaron commented irritably, bracing himself on the bonnet, his panic growing by the second.

“Alright, I’m trying to help here!” he replied. “Pierce, just think about what you’re doing, mate.”

“He’s way beyond that, Rob.”

“Right,” Robert sighed, backing away a few feet from the car. “I’m calling the police,” he told Aaron, ensuring he wasn’t loud enough for the driver to hear his intentions. “Aaron, come away from the edge. If he puts his foot on that accelerator again and takes you with them--”

“I can’t just leave them here,” the younger man argued. 

“I’m not asking you to,” Robert said reasonably. “Just please move away from there?”

Aaron took a breath, then nodded, though he was terrified that the minute he moved the car was going to take off before he could stop it. He slowly made his way back to the passenger’s side of the car. Rhona’s eyes were pleading with him, and he didn’t have a clue how he was going to get them out of this. 

He looked over at Robert, who was still on the phone talking the police through what was going on. Then he looked back inside the car. Doing and saying nothing wasn’t making any difference, so despite telling Robert that it was pointless, he would have to try talking to Pierce after all. It was all he could do.

Mirroring what Robert had done just a few minutes before, he walked round to the other side of the car. “Can you wind the window down?” He asked carefully. Pierce ignored him, so he raised his voice. “Come on, only the other week you told me you love these two,” Aaron gestured towards Rhona and Leo. “Was I an idiot to believe you?”

That seemed to touch a nerve. The man obliged, opening the car window. “I do love them,” he replied weakly. “I do.”

“Okay. Then you can stop this. It’s not too late.”

“It is! I’ve lost everything. My wife, now my job…Rhona and Leo are all I’ve got left and no one wants me to have them. This is the only way we can be together.”

Aaron was out of his depth. The man was obviously mentally ill. And while people like Vanessa and Marlon had never really approved of Pierce as Rhona’s new boyfriend, they hadn’t thought him to be unstable. They just hadn’t liked him.

He crouched down so that he was at eye level with Pierce, willing himself to find the right words; the words that might stop the very worst from happening. “That’s not true. You don’t have to do this. We can sort it out.”

“You know nothing!” Pierce spat. “What do you know about loss?”

“Clearly nobody’s told you my life story, then, mate. Trust me, I know plenty.” Aaron looked up to find Robert returning to the car, and wondered what bright idea he had now. He forced himself to look back inside the car before Pierce could notice anything. 

Looking up at Robert again, Aaron saw that he was edging closer to the car with what looked like a brick in his hand, and he shook his head to stop him in his tracks. Of course, what he really wanted to do right now was smash the window in himself, drag the man from the car and flatten him with a single punch, then shout for Rhona and Leo to run. But Pierce could drive over the edge far quicker than either Robert or Aaron could act even after breaking the glass. They had to play this the right way.

Unfortunately Pierce had noticed him gesturing to Robert. “What are you doing?”

Aaron kept his voice steady and calm. “Nothing. I’m just letting Robert know that my pep talk isn’t going very well…” he trailed off with an awkward laugh. 

“You think this is funny?” Pierce’s voice was dangerously angry.

“No, I don’t. I think this is a nightmare waiting to happen, but it’s fixable if you let Rhona and Leo out of the car right now.”

He studied the man’s face, hoping that his words might finally be hitting home. But whatever he was thinking was interrupted by a loud cry from Leo.

Rhona spoke for the first time since they’d arrived on the scene, telling him everything was going to be alright, even though it was far from it. Her phone started to ring, and although she didn’t dare answer it she couldn’t help looking at the screen. “It’s Ness,” she said weakly. Aaron pulled himself back up to a standing position; he hoped that meant that Vanessa was well on her way.

Once again the Pierce’s face had darkened with anger. “She’s still trying to stop us. I told you, no one wants us to be together,” he said through gritted teeth, pressing down on the accelerator as Leo continued to cry and Rhona let out a scream of pure horror. 

Aaron cursed helplessly as he held on to the car, as if hoping that the weight of him might miraculously be enough to keep the car stationary. Robert ran over, brick still in hand, and used it to smash the driver’s window just as the car reached the quarry edge. They were now one more move away from going over completely, but Robert’s actions had distracted Pierce and he had taken his foot off the pedal. Glass had landed on his face and small cuts were appearing.

Aaron used the man’s dazed state to their advantage, reaching into unlock the door and opening it before doing what he’d been wanting to do this entire time – dragging Pierce out and throwing him to the ground. There was no time to hit him now, though. 

He saw Rhona press a button to unlock the rest of the car and make to get out, but the vehicle suddenly rocked, and she let out a scream. The engine was still running, and Leo was wriggling around in the backseat with no outside effect while his terrified mother daren’t move an inch. 

“Aaron, get Leo out!” she ordered, and as Robert tackled Pierce to the floor so he couldn’t evade police before they arrived, Aaron nodded at Rhona. He reached Leo’s side in seconds but was careful about opening the door, scared that it would again cause a shift in movement. 

“Hey mate,” he said gently. “It’s okay, I’m going to get you out now. Can you undo your seatbelt for me? Good boy.” Aaron picked up his godson, who was still in tears, and lifted him out to safety. He heard Rhona let out a breath in relief. 

And then it happened. Just when Aaron was trying to work out what to do next, Robert lost his grip on the older man and Pierce very calmly got to his feet, walked towards the edge and jumped.

“Oh my God!” Rhona shouted and Leo, who was still in Aaron’s arms and had apparently seen it all, was now having a fresh bout of hysterics. Robert ran to his boyfriend’s side, the two of them sharing a look that was beyond shock. Watching a man jump to his death, even someone they barely knew, was far more traumatic than anything they’d ever seen on TV.

“Okay.” Aaron tried to get his thoughts together, blocking out what he’d just seen. “Right, we need to get you out, now,” he told Rhona. “And where the hell are the police?”

“Here any minute now, I expect,” Robert replied. “Fat lot of good that’ll do now that the bloke’s gone and--”

“Robert!” Aaron looked from his boyfriend to Leo, warning him not to finish that sentence in front of a five year old. A very distressed five year old. “Here, I need you to look after Leo while I--”

Rhona cut him off in a shaky yet fierce voice. “No way. You’re not leaving my son with him.” Again she tried to leave the car unaided, but again it started to rock. 

“Put the handbrake on,” Aaron instructed, and once she had done so he returned to the topic at hand. “So, Paddy told you about all that stuff from last year, then.”

“By ‘stuff’ you mean Robert threatening me and Leo? Yes, he did mention it.”

“Look, Rhona, I need to get you out of here safely, which means I need to get in the car and reverse it before it gets any closer to the edge…”

“And you know Aaron’s the man you want when it comes to cars,” Robert pointed out. 

Aaron resumed his explanation. “So I need Rob to look after Leo for a bit. Look, I’m not defending him for the things he’s done and the things he’s said but I promise you, I would not be trusting him with my godson if I didn’t trust him with my own life, Rhona. And I do. So I need you to trust me too.”

With a quick look around, as if needing a reminder of the seriousness of the situation, she found herself nodding. Aaron handed the little boy over, and Robert looked down at him with a kind smile as he moved out of their way.

Aaron sat down in the driver’s seat, flinching when the vehicle moved under his own weight. With swift and quick movements, he managed to reverse the car until it was far enough away from the quarry’s edge. It was only when he turned off the engine that he felt able to breathe properly again.

Rhona practically flew out of the car, and he followed close behind as she ran over to Robert and took her son from his arms. After checking that they were both alright, Aaron was taken to one side by his boyfriend, just as they heard police sirens approaching.

“Typical! Now they decide to show up. You alright?”

Aaron took a deep breath. “I think so.”

Two officers appeared, asking what had happened and if anyone was injured. Robert bluntly directed them to look below the quarry drop. They were then all asked to make statements, and were taken to the station. 

Later on, when all the formalities were over and done with, Rhona hugged Aaron, overcome with gratitude. She offered Robert a nod of what he presumed was mild acceptance, to which he smiled back. Aaron double-checked that she and Leo would be okay at home on their own after the harrowing day’s events, and she informed him that Vanessa would be staying with them. The woman had turned up shortly after the police had and could hardly believe her ears when told about Pierce, even with all her previous concerns about the man.

Sitting alone in the backroom of the pub with two very much needed pints of beer, Aaron and Robert were both silent until the older man could no longer hold his tongue. “You were incredible today, you know.”

Aaron gulped down about half of his drink before he replied. “Hardly. I was scared shitless. But they’re still Paddy’s family, I couldn’t let anything happen to them.”

“And you didn’t, Aaron. You saved them.”

“Yeah, maybe. Couldn’t have done it without you there, though.”

Robert stared at him in confusion. “How d’you work that out?”

“You don’t know by now? You make me strong.”

“By not doing anything? I was totally useless.”

“No you weren’t. It’s like…it’s like during all the stuff with Gordon. If you hadn’t been there through it all I would never have got through it.”

“Oh Aaron. You’re so much stronger than you think. You proved that today.”

The younger man sat back, breathing deeply. “I keep thinking about him, just jumping like that. I nearly did the same thing once. And in the same place.”

Robert reached over to put an arm around Aaron’s shoulders. “I remember.”

“I haven’t actually thought about…I mean, I haven’t wanted to die for a long time now. Things have been so good lately; but what happened today made me really want to live, you know what I mean? Even more than I already am.”

“So what are you suggesting? Backpacking round the world; a bungee jump in New Zealand?”

Aaron laughed. “Did you not hear what I said about being scared shitless? No, I was thinking more like me and you getting our act together. We need to grow up and stop rowing about stupid things that don’t really matter. If it had been me facing death today my last thought could have been ‘I wish I hadn’t had a go at Robert this morning for finishing the last of the milk’. What a waste of time.”

Robert had been listening intently, and now he grinned in amusement as Aaron made his final point. “You’re right. From now on we’ll remind ourselves of what’s really important next time we’re on the verge of an argument.”

“Well, we’ll try,” Aaron smirked. “But I’m sure I’ll forget to do that if you’re annoying me too much.”

“Oi, it might be you annoying me!”

“Nah, I’m incredible, remember?”

Their playful banter slowly dissolved as Robert’s face grew serious. “Yes, you are. Did you mean what you said to Rhona about me? That you trust me with your life?”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t have said it otherwise.”

A strange look came over Robert’s face then. He looked almost overwhelmed with the weight of Aaron’s words. Then he smiled, the sort of smile that only appeared in the presence of the other man. 

“Aaron…”

“Mmm?”

“Marry me.”

His head had been resting on Robert’s shoulder, thinking that the deep and meaningful discussion had come to a natural end. Now he sat up, wondering if he’d heard correctly. “What?”

“Will. You. Marry. Me?”

“Where did that come from?”

“Just now, when you were talking about wanting to live, and remembering what’s important.”

Aaron raised an eyebrow. “And it made you want to propose? I’m not sure you’re thinking straight.”

“I stopped thinking straight when I fell for you, apparently,” Robert grinned.

“Oh well, it’s nice to know you can laugh about your sexuality these days,” Aaron rolled his eyes. “Unless you’re actually saying I made you lose your mind.”

“Being without you would make me lose my mind. I really mean it, Aaron. I want to be your husband. I know it’s a bit out of the blue but--”

“Yes.”

Robert sat up, glancing back at Aaron’s suddenly bright eyes and the way his lips had curved into a coy smile. “Really?” 

“Robert, I never thought I’d say this to any bloke. But yeah I’ll marry you. I’d do it tomorrow if we could; just as long as it’s nothing too over the top.”

There was only the briefest of pauses before he got a response. “Then let’s do it as soon as possible. I’ll phone the registry office in the morning if that’s what you want?”

Aaron pulled him into a long kiss, fingers gripping onto Robert’s shirt to bring him closer to his body. 

“That’s another yes then, is it?” the older man chuckled as he reluctantly drew back from him. They were both laughing together, happy and content after their big decision. It was a few minutes later, when they were wrapped in a comfortable embrace, that Robert felt Aaron’s demeanour change. Now he was shaking in his arms.

“Hey, hey,” he soothed as he held him, knowing this had to be a delayed reaction to the danger he had stared in the face today. Aaron was sobbing on his shoulder.

“Sorry,” he choked out, pulling back. “I’m okay…I’m happy, honestly. It’s just all that stuff today. It just got to me a bit.”

“I know, I know.” Robert cupped his face gently. “I’m here.” 

Aaron smiled as his breathing began to calm down again. “I love you.”

“And I love you. You alright now?”

“Yeah. Let’s try and have a boring day tomorrow though, yeah? I think I need it. Unless we end up getting married, obviously.”

As it turned out, the registry office did have a last minute cancellation the following afternoon. They exchanged vows that day with Victoria and Adam as their delighted witnesses, knowing they had plenty to arrange afterwards like where they were going to live as a married couple. But for now, they were simply living for the moment. Life could change in an instant and Aaron and Robert were determined to make the most of every moment together.

So that’s exactly what they did.


End file.
